The Importance of Skin
by ZTheIncomplete
Summary: Soul is sick, Stein is a pervert, and Maka still doesn't have a shirt on.


**AN: Just a two-parter about skin-to-skin and how it helps a partnership. There may or _may not_ be any smut. I really don't think there will be. For as much as I write it, I don't really feel like I am well suited to that. I do like sexual tension and there's _lots_ of that in here.**

"Soul? Dinner's ready, get up." Maka rapped on the door a few times before making her way to the table to eat dinner. After a few minutes, she glanced at the door, _Did he not hear me? _She pondered as she swallowed a bit of rice. "Soul?" Still, Maka heard nothing.

The tech took a deep breath before shrugging open Soul's door. He was in there, yeah, but he didn't seem to notice her. He was sprawled on his back, his sheets more on the floor than the bed, but he was clearly sleeping. "Soul?" Nothing. He didn't so much as twitch in acknowledgement. Maka made her way over to his bed, sitting on the edge. Soul shifted slightly into her weight, but didn't wake up. His partner gently shook him, something was up. Sure, he was alive but there was something wrong. _Maybe, I should call Dr. Stein. He might know._

"Hello?"

"Uh, Dr. Stein?"

"Maka? Why are you calling this late?"

"It's Soul. He won't wake up."

"Oh, is he alive?" Blunt much.

"Yes, he's breathing but he won't wake up and he's being pretty still. He's a twitchy sleeper."

"Has he been acting weird lately?"

"A little bit. He's been acting a little off but we've been training a lot, so I figured he was just tired. I found him staring at the wall yesterday after his favorite show went off. During lunch today he kept spacing while eating."

"Ah, how does his soul wavelength feel?"

Maka paused, she hadn't tried to pick it up since before he started acting weird. She didn't have to really try to feel it, it was as familiar to her as breathing. But it felt wrong. She always thought of it like a well written story, flowing from one word to the next. But now, it kept lapsing back into the sentence before. As Soul would put it, it was skipping like a scratched record.

"It feels like it's skipping or something. It's definitely off."

She could here the creaking of the screw in her dear teacher's head. "Sir, is there anything I can do?"

"Try resonating with him. It's hard to do without him being transformed and even harder since he's pretty much in a coma. Just try before it gets worse. I think the longer it goes, the worse it will get."

"Is there anyway to make it easier?"

"Skin to skin contact really helps."

"What helps?"

"Skin. To. Skin. Your skin touching his."

"Oh well, um, I'll go..do that."

"Mhm, later Maka. Call if it doesn't work. I'll keep looking."

Maka hung the phone up before making her way back to Soul's room. Okay, this wasn't weird. She had to do this. He would understand. Right? It wasn't that weird? Maka crawled onto his bed. She slid her hand into his, trying to focus like she did when they resonated.

There it was, the faint tingle of their souls aligning. It went fine for a moment before it vanished like a wisp of smoke. Maka sighed, trying again. Same thing. It would connect for a second before dissolving. The blond tech growled and made her way to the phone. "Stein? Yeah it's not working very well. Only for a second." She paused, listening to him, "I held his hand." She gasped when Stein told her what to do. "Oh okay." Maka slammed the phone down. "Pervert."

Once again, she made her way over to her partner's bed. She drew a deep breathe before grabbing the hem of his shirt and wiggling it up and over his head. Green eyes narrowed darkly at the scars on his chest. This is why she had to do this. He gave blood for her. This wasn't that bad, was it? The girl gulped before pulling her own shirt over her head. "I'm only doing this because you're my best friend and partner." That's what she told herself and the sleeping teen below her. Slowly, Maka crawled on top of Soul and linked her hands with his, her head resting in the crook of his neck.

The hum of resonance was much louder this time. It really helped. It had better help. She was laying half-naked on her half-naked male roommate. But it was working, his soul was starting to flow correctly and she felt him twitch a little beneath her. Quickly schooling her train of thought back, she focused on his old wavelength, willing the skipping one back. Slowly, but surely, it was returning to normal. Soul was moving around more, struggling underneath her as he woke.

"Maka?" Red eyes blinked up at her uneasily, slowly realizing the situation. His meister, his shy little meister, was sprawled on top of him, partially naked. "Am I dreaming? Did I get drunk again?" He asked groggily, causing Maka to jump off him and pull the covers around her chest.

She glared down at him, her face beet red. "No stupid, your soul got jacked up and I had to fix it. Stein told me the more skin we had touching the better." She huffed before storming out of the room only to find five very confused teenagers sitting in her living room. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Dude, did you two just like..ya know?" Black Star could only stare at her, along with the others. It was then that Maka realized she still didn't have a shirt on. Neither did the white-haired young man leaning in the doorway, smirking.

"No. Soul, there is food on the table. _I _am going to go put on a shirt." Or that's what she thought until Soul collapsed onto the floor.

"SOUL!" Ignoring modesty, Maka rushed to her fallen partner's side. "Soul, get up." He smirked up at her weakly as she pulled him up to stand. "Stupid." She murmured, trying to ignore the looks her friends were giving her as she helped Soul to the couch. He pulled her down with him so she was sitting in his lap. Then she noticed it, he was terrified of letting her go. On the outside, Soul looked as calm as he always did but there it was, deep down, he was terrified.

Tsubaki draped a blanket around the two teens, partially to hide them and partially because Maka looked cold. "Hey guys, why don't we watch a movie, that's what we came over for right?" Maka and Soul looked at each other, clearly having forgotten the arrangement. Tsubaki grinned as everyone began bickering over which movie to watch, "I'll go make popcorn."

Soul's arms tightened around Maka, she wasn't sure why though. From what she could tell, his soul was aligned correctly now and had been since Tsubaki left to make popcorn. Still, the young man was determined to squeeze the life out of her. She was even more confused when he buried his face into her neck. "Sorry."

Tsubaki set the giant bowl of popcorn on the coffee table before settling in next to Liz on the loveseat across from Soul and Maka. Black Star and Patti flopped onto the floor and Kidd sat in the large armchair. They popped in some random thriller movie before flicking the lights off.

Normally, Maka wouldn't be scared by these kinds of movies, but this one bothered her. The bad guy seemed so much like the young man death clinging to her right now. It unnerved her a little bit. Especially when the heroine was seduced into the pianist/killer's bed. Around the same time, Soul began lazily running his hand up and down her lower back.

**Reviews get squishy soulssss.**


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